County: Offaly Site name: MONETTIA BOG, Ballinvally
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0621
Author: Ellen OCarroll, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Road - class 2 togher
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 635332m, N 714925m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.183611, -7.471389
During the summer of 1999, some milled oak planks were observed by a Bord na Móna (BnM) worker while undertaking some milling in Monettia Bog, Co. Offaly. The site was subsequently reported to ADS Ltd, who undertook an excavation so that peat production could resume in that area. Monettia Bog is part of the Boora group of bogs and is located south of the village of Killeigh, Co. Offaly.
The site comprised a linear plank trackway that could be traced across the BnM fields for a length of 40m. The trackway had been milled at its north-western end, but the south-western end still had some surviving in situ remains. Two cuttings, each measuring 5m x 3m, were placed along the remaining length of the trackway. The site was composed of longitudinal oak planks laid end to end with no evidence of pegs or mortices. The planks were 0.4m wide and 0.1m deep. The site was a simple construction, probably laid on fairly stable peat, hence the lack of pegs, mortices and transverses in its make-up. The trackway has been dated to AD 760±9yrs (QUB-10065).
The site could be traced to the edge of an area of turbury plots, where it is preserved under c. 1m of peat. These plots were located beside a dryland island known as Derrygunnigan, which was located in the centre of Monettia Bog. This island appears to be the destination of the linear plank trackway.
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